The writings of the great majority of economists over the past thirty years have supported the powerful currents that sweep the modern world toward centralized authority, interventionism, and statism. The teachings of these economists led generations of students and laymen to believe uncritically that an economy based on unhampered individual enterprise and the institution of private property must breed unemployment, instability, resource misallocation, stagnation and an unjust distribution of income. And yet, there has consistently been a dissenting minority whose voices are not completely drowned out by the teachings of their colleagues. . . .